Persons, Objects & Events

Berchtold was the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister at the outbreak of war in 1914.

Franz Ferdinand, a nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph, was as heir to throne a controversial figure in Austria-Hungary. He and his wife Sophie were the victims of the 1914 assassination in Sarajevo, which is regarded as the trigger of the First World War.

Performances in the German-speaking countries of compositions by Richard Strauss boomed during the First World War. In 1917, Strauss, together with Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Max Reinhardt, laid the basis for the Salzburg Festival.

In 1899 Alfred Hermann Fried founded Die Friedens-Warte, which still exists today, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1911 for his work.

Maximilian Ritter von Hoen was the director of the War Archive and between 1914 and 1917 the director of the Austro-Hungarian War Press Headquarters (KPQ). In this function, he was responsible for monitoring and censoring the press and implementing propaganda measures.

During the First World War, Pilsudski fought as a soldier and politician for the re-establishment of an independent Polish state. After 1918, he became Poland’s authoritarian head of state.

In November 1894, Nicholas II, aged only 26, acceded to the throne and reigned as the last Russian Tsar. In the second year of the war, Nicholas II himself assumed supreme command over the armed forces until he was forced to abdicate as a consequence of the February Revolution in 1917.

During the four years of the war Julius Meinl II militated in favour of a negotiated peace, amongst other things through the Austrian Political Society founded by him.

Very soon after the start of the war, the author Hugo von Hoffmannsthal attracted attention with his patriotic publications. In order to avoid military service, he had himself transferred to the Press Service of the War Welfare Office.

The journalist and photographer Alice Schalek was the only female war reporter of the Austro-Hungarian War Press Headquarters during the First World War. She wrote patriotic reports about the Serbia campaign and the Isonzo front.

Maurice Ravel volunteered for war service, which only lasted for one year because of health problems. Ravel was regarded as a moderate patriot since he was critical of the prohibition on performances of “hostile” composers.

Ignaz Seipel was a theologist, prelate and Christian Socialist politician. During the First World War he was Minister of Social Welfare in the ‘Lammasch cabinet’.

Edmund Fischer from Fürstenfeld joined in the mountain war against Italy from 1915 on as platoon leader in the Telegraph Regiment. In September 1917 when constructing cable lines on Montozzo, almost 10,000 feet in altitude, there was a mine explosion that robbed him of his eyesight. Edmund Fischer remained completely blind for the rest of his life.